During my academic training I made a lot of effort, especially in the areas of molecular biology because, well "" they are the filter to be good biologists "“. When I lacked a semester to finish the degree, a teacher exercised academic harassment on me, the reason for her academic harassment: I had demanded better training and fair grades in a subject in the area of molecular biology and genetics. Since that claim, there was no way that I could pass the subject of Population Genetics, even if the teacher was not the main teacher and was only the supervisor of the subject. I remember that once in her office she told me that I should leave the career, that my mediocre head did not give for a scientific career, that would be better if I stop wasting others time and mine, that I was never going to be a scientist in my life, that I could go to other careers that won’t need so much mental effort. I got to the point of deciding to give up with the career, because I was repeating the subject for 2 years, no matter what I did, although I deserved to pass that subject, I always failed; that teacher always found a way to fail me. My goodbye to biology was the Peruvian ornithology congress in 2018; It was very hard for me to make that decision, I did not know a world outside of biology, I did not see myself practicing any profession other than being a biologist. After the congress I took a course of Population Genetics, although I already knew that there was nothing in the world that I loved more than biology, at that moment I realized that I would have to fight against everything and everyone to be a biologist, and even though I had been failing a subject in the molecular area for a long time, I knew I could be good in that area. I returned to Bolivia and enrolled again in the Biology career, I took the same subject, I had an excellent grade, higher than 80/100, the teacher seeing that there was no way to fail me only said:”" This 80 is too much for you "", annulled complete reports, to lower my grade, despite these injustices I managed to pass that subject and finally obtain the degree.

I am Ecuadorian, and since I was little I have been interested in the diversity of plants and animals that I have known. Growing up on the coast of Ecuador is wonderful, with the ocean and the tropical dry forest. My family has always love travel and nature. As a child and a teenager, we camped on the beach and could explore the humid mountain forest when we visited the town of my paternal grandparents, San Lorenzo in Manabí.

This love for nature and animals inspires me to study biology as a career, specifically interested in the evolution and adaptability of species to their environment. From the beginning, my studies have been full of challenges; I had to move to another city because in mine they did not have the career that I longed for. Afterwards, the main challenge was the search for opportunities outside the country. Preparation, determination, studying another language, having to leave family and friends behind in order to have the opportunity to specialize in what had become my dream. This were challenges that always was present.

I did my master’s degree in the United States. It was an experience of more than a year of preparation. Well, I had to apply for scholarships to be able to have funding and prepare myself in the English language. Fortunately, my master’s supervisor, who is also from Ecuador, encouraged me throughout the process. Finally, I was able to work with him for two years. During this time he told me that many times the opportunities are outside the country, but that something can always be done for Ecuador, even from afar. His way of helping was by offering opportunities for Ecuadorian students like me to do graduate studies. And with that advice I returned to Ecuador, after my master’s degree, to work as a teacher.

I was fortunate to work as a teacher at the university where I had done my undergraduate studies. I learned a lot from other teachers. My interests in evolution led me to collaborate on RNA virus phylogeny projects, where I learned basic bioinformatics and phylogeography methods.

Teaching is a family tradition, my mother, my grandmother, uncles and aunts are teachers too. I was proud to also teach as my family did. And during the time that I was working, I realized the importance of this work. I wanted my classes to be as I would have liked to receive them, and the response of the students was very good, even when I stopped teaching after two years to pursue my doctorate, I am still in contact with many of those students, who now they also do their postgraduate courses.

When I started looking for PhDs, while working in Ecuador, I realized the importance of doing research within the country. At first I wanted to continue working with fish, but an opportunity to work with plants presented itself in the Galapagos Islands. I am currently living in Montreal, Canada, in my 4th year of doctorate and despite having had to change my study system, and again moving to another country, I am proud to continue doing research in my own country despite being far.

Being in a rainforest had the same effect on me as it did on many naturalists who awoke to the great mystery of nature when they travelled to the tropics. As an extremely curious child who loved to feel the cold earth on warm feet, growing up surrounded by the Atlantic Rainforest was a wonder. I wanted to grow up and understand how it all worked. How humans were always destroying things that never went back to the way they were before, but in the middle of the forest everything always seemed intact, although always different? One day a log would appear in the middle of the stream, the next an insect’s nest would appear on the bank of this stream, then these things would disappear and give way to others, but nothing seemed to come out of a full and orchestrated functioning.

I felt I couldn’t be happy in adult life, the one where we usually have to work and pay bills, if I couldn’t spend the eight hours of work in this same - physical or mental - environment.It was hard to get into college, I was never a brilliant student, but on the third or fourth attempt I entered a world that was much bigger than I imagined. I learned that it was not enough to be a biologist, you had to choose a specialty - but how, if everything interested me? I chose ecology because it was the area that seemed to connect most things. I could be an ecologist and study the life of birds, or how they interact with plants, or how microalgae populations fluctuate over time… It would be like deciphering the score that guides an invisible conductor just by listening to what the orchestra plays.

This idyllic motivation only resulted in an academic career because I had space in an extremely creative laboratory, with openness to develop ourselves as scientists as if we were artists. Unfortunately I know few labs like this, and I see many colleagues having their wings clipped daily by research directors. And because I had this space for a few years at the beginning of my academic development, I learned to run away from any place that imposed barriers on me. This makes it a little more difficult to find a new place when the old one can no longer shelter you: I had to look for another laboratory to develop my PhD because the things I was looking for were no longer offered by the institution I was in.

In the new institution I did not have the freedom - almost poetic - that I had in the previous institution, and I lacked something very important for a scientist at this stage: collaboration. I longed to do science more horizontally, openly, collectively. I believed that the decentralisation of ideas was something very important, especially in view of the social changes we were going through, which were enhanced by the lack of transparency. So I met people who helped me realise this desire, but unfortunately I had to leave my country to find an environment with this culture.

I am a Colombian who is preparing to be a disease ecologist. A path that has been forged from passion and perseverance. I was fortunate to grow up in a family with a high sensitivity for the welfare of animals and the environment; As a child, I found television shows and magazines with stories about wild animals motivating, as well as exploring the world of insects in plants and under rocks. All of this was possible because she was surrounded by a family that recognized the importance of all living organisms, from a microscopic bacterium to a huge blue whale.

When it was time to choose my professional career, I decided to become a veterinary doctor thinking of contributing directly to the quality of life of animals, especially in those places where human activities put their integrity at risk. During my studies, I learned more about microbiology and disease transmission. And when I did an internship in a veterinary pathology laboratory, I developed my thesis on the phylogeny of a virus that affects individuals of the carnivorous order. It was wonderful because in addition to learning about virus-host interactions, I also developed investigative skills with the support of a comprehensive scientist who inspired me to continue in academia. At the end of my studies as a veterinarian, I was an assistant in a congress in which I was fascinated by projects in mathematical models to understand the behavior of viruses in rodents and advances in microbiology applied to free-living animals. This motivated me to look for options that would allow me to continue my academic training, despite the financial limitations to finance postgraduate studies on my own.